Face vise questions. *LINK*

Re: Face vise questions.

Adam Cherubini

>Tony,

Racking is a problem with any vise. In your case, the 3" jaw won't be the problem. With the stock 10" away from the center screw, the jaw will want to rack. That racking is reacted by a (much tighter) couple between two of the bushings (if they exist) where the guide rails pass through the base plate. If there is any slop between rails and bushings right of the box, you will immediately see racking after installation. The extent to which is naturally governed by the geometry. You will also see racking in the other plane (above the screw). What other guys do for this is bevel the jaw slightly. Not sure how you'd apply this tactic for side to side racking.

I had a vise like this on my first bench and abandoned it quickly. You may have better luck. Just keep in mind that the closer you are to that screw the better off you will be.

Good luck,

Adam

Re: Face vise questions.

Wiley Horne--Glendora, CA

>Tony,

You may already know this, but thought I'd mention it just in case. You can counter the horizontal racking by putting spacer blocks on the other side of the vise from the side you're clamping on. Saw the spacer blocks from scrap in the thicknesses that you'll be using, or make a graduated series of them, and put a dowel through the face of each block at the top, so that you have a few inches of dowel on either side. The dowel will bridge across the vise jaws, so it's a simple thing to drop it into place as you're beginning to clamp the work.

Don't know about the screws you mentioned.

Wiley

Re: Face vise questions.

Paul M. in San Diego

>As Adam said, you *will* have racking with this type of vise. There's no way around it. It's just not that stable of a mechanism.

If I'm clamping more than an inch or two off center, I need to add a block of the same width as the piece I'm clamping on the opposite end of the jaw to prevent racking. I made up a few 2X2 chunks of various thicknesses, and screwed them together to make L shapes that allow one leg to sit on the bench (or jaw) to keep the shim up while the other leg is in the jaw to prevent racking. This keeps the shim from dropping to the floor every time you open the vise. If you keep this vise, you'll be heading towards the same work-around for the problem.

Question re: racking and blocks...

Jonathan Kaplan (OR)

>I have a similar (but cheaper) vise on my bench (I bought an inexpensive bench, intending to someday build a better one when I figured out exactly what I wanted -- but it's now been over five years and I'm still figuring out what I want to build...). To 'solve' the ranking problem, I keep a couple of wedge-shaped blocks around... I tighten the vise just until it catches the work-piece, drop the wedge in, and tighten away. The only problem with this method is that, as my block is about as hard as the wood on the my vise, it tends to mess up the top of the vise on that side a bit. But the side is messes up isn't the side I use on its own, so...

Is there something else I'm missing here? Something that should inspire me to make lots of little block-sets rather than using a wedge?

Just wondering! Thanks!

jk

Re: Question re: racking and blocks...

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I saw one tip in a magazine that suggested a stack of pieces of 1/8" masonite (or similar - you could probably use door skin plywood, but masonite is less splintery), pivoted at one corner with a little bolt as I remember. You folded up the parts you didn't need, and slipped the parts you did into the vise.

And in thinking about this

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>If you folded some up from each side (so that the part you put in the vise was in the middle of the stack), you could rest the "up" chunks on the vise jaws to keep the bundle from falling down.

Bill, picturing drilling a hole through a deck of cards...

Re: Question re: racking and blocks...

paul womack

>I used to recommend this:

http://home.earthlink.net/~kvaughn65j/bench.html

http://home.earthlink.net/~kvaughn65j/spacer_blocks.jpg

http://home.earthlink.net/~kvaughn65j/space_block_use.jpg

Until I saw this (tip from FWW, photo by Alice)

http://premium1.uploadit.org/prenwyth//vicerack.JPG

BugBear

Re: Question re: racking and blocks...

Alice Frampton, UK

>And it works too. Best tip I ever got from FWW I think. Plus all the bits I didn't use in the stack have come in handy for all sorts of things. :~)

Cheers, Alf

Re: Question re: racking and blocks...

Adam Cherubini

>I always wondered if you couldn't tap a hole in the jaw and use a small wooden screw (maybe 3/4") to compensate for racking. I know this sort makes it sound like a twin screw, but its not so very complicated afterall.

If the little screw was at the bottom of the jaw on the left hand side, it would drive pressure up and right like an angled leg vise.

Anyway, its just a thought.

Adam

racking

ydb1md

>If I had it to do over again, I'd have put a shoulder vise on my bench, rather than a front vise. Front vises seem to make sense, but mine continually pi$$es me off.

I'm going to spend some time this winter and remove my front vise and replace it with a shoulder vise.

Very cool idea!

Jonathan Kaplan (OR)

>

Ah

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I knew I had seen it somewhere.